INTENSIVE mother and child care programmes introduced in Tanga Region have helped in reducing maternal mortality rate in the region.
This was revealed here by the Tanga Regional Commissioner (RC), Chiku Gallawa, when pointing out the region's achievements in the health sector.
She said the maternal mortality rate recorded in the year 2005 was 280 deaths per 100,000 expectant mothers, but last year (2012), the death rate went down to 182 out of 100,000 expectant mothers.
She said that was a great achievement the region should be proud of, as the government was now striving to make sure that the death rate for expectant mother drops further. The RC attributed the achievement to deliberate efforts and good planning of the government determined to see that the deaths for expectant mothers are reduced.
Speaking about mechanisms used to attain such achievements, the RC said it included the dissemination of reproductive health education to the public at all levels in both rural and urban areas. Ms Gallawa also said that the achievement was also attributed to rehabilitation of health facilities as many people have access to health provision centres and the establishment of as many dispensaries and health centres as possible in the region.
According to her, Tanga Region has about 294 dispensaries and 36 health centres in various districts. She, however, said that the present health facility centres were not enough, thus more dispensaries and health centres were under construction to reduce the gap.
"I cannot say that the facilities that we have are adequate but we have done a lot since 2005 when President Jakaya Kikwete entered into power until now...we continue to improve social service delivery every year. "You know that the population is increasing and we have to increase our services too...but we have to agree that the government is doing a tremendous job to offer services to its people," she stressed.
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